Cooking with Lemongrass

Cooking With Lemongrass

The flavour intensity of lemongrass varies widely depending on the climate where it was grown. The plants stems, leaves and base smell of fresh lemons with a hint of ginger. When cooking with lemongrass it’s best to season by taste rather than using quantities listed in recipes and can be used in a variety of dishes ranging from soups to desserts. Lemongrass is fibrous and stringy and unpleasant to eat so remember to bash before cooking to release flavour and remove stalks before serving. Lemongrass is typically sold fresh (a bunch of 3-4 stalks aprox one foot long), but it’s also available dried and powdered (sereh). One teaspoon of powder is roughly equivalent to one fresh stalk. You can also buy prepared, ready-to-use lemongrass in tubs in the freezer section of your local Asian/Chinese grocery store. Dried lemongrass slices should be soaked for two hours before using. When purchasing fresh lemongrass, look for firm stalks (not soft or rubbery, which means it’s too old). Lower stalk should be pale yellow (almost white) in colour, while upper stalks are green (do not purchase if outer leaves are crusty or brown). Lemongrass can be kept in the fridge for three weeks and frozen up to six months. Most of the flavour is in the thicker bulb end, which can be added whole to dishes, o